Esther Mikaelson
Esther Mikaelson (''Elder Futhark: ᛖᛋᚦᛖᚱ ᛗᛁᚲᚨᛖᛚᛋᛟᚾ'') was one of "the most powerful witches in history"Après Moi, Le Déluge, and she was responsible for creating the Original vampires. She appeared in the third season of as a recurring character and a main antagonist. She was also a major recurring character and a primary antagonist in the second season of The Originals. Esther was the wife of Mikael and the former lover of Ansel. She was the mother of Freya, Finn, Elijah, Niklaus, Kol, Rebekah and Henrik. She was also the younger sister of Dahlia, and the grandmother of Hope Mikaelson and an unnamed grandson. During the third season of , Esther was revived thanks to the efforts of Bonnie and Abby Bennett. She planned to kill her children, linking them together and stripping them of their vampirism before killing Finn, who willingly helped her. To stop Esther's plan, Damon Salvatore was forced to kill Abby and turn her into a vampire, unlinking Esther from the Bennett witch line. Esther later helps Alaric Saltzman develop a dark, murderous, vampire hating alter-ego. She then turns him into an Enhanced Original vampire for the purpose of hunting down and killing the rest of her children with the indestructible white oak stake she crafted with his Gilbert ring. Alaric kills her soon after when his original personality briefly regained control after waking up in transition, stabbing her to save Jeremy and Matt from her magic attacks. It was revealed in , that Klaus had been holding onto Esther's coffin. In New Orleans, when Klaus and Elijah helped Sophie Deveraux become an Elder, they offered her Esther's body. They consecrated Esther's remains, which later allowed her to revive herself in From a Cradle to a Grave and possess the last Harvest Girl, Cassie, with the completed Harvest Ritual. She also revived Finn and Kol, placing them in the body of two witches - Vincent and Kaleb, respectively. In the second season of , Esther seeks to convince her children to give up their immortal lives and become mortal again. Finn willingly helps her and Kol follows his own agenda, eventually joining Klaus' side. Esther body jumps from Cassie to Lenore. In The Map of Moments, Esther's witchcraft is stripped after Rebekah put blood in her wine. Klaus eventually returns to her, informing her that she is no longer a witch and is now a vampire. Esther forms an alliance with Mikael and Finn, in an effort to kill Klaus and his allies. Esther was, for a brief while, a vampire, while possessing the body of the witch Lenore, and was forced to transition without body jumping into a new witch host. She briefly became what she hated the most, a vampire. After reuniting with her eldest daughter, Freya, Esther aids her and Klaus in saving their sister Rebekah from her body host, the witch Eva Sinclair. After doing so, Esther warns Klaus that Freya will turn his siblings against him, and tells him that all her previous acts were only meant to undo her evil, in hope that he will love her again. Klaus mocks her and leaves her in the dark. Later, Esther is cold-heartedly executed at the hands of her daughter Freya, as punishment for giving her over to Dahlia over a thousand years ago. In Ashes to Ashes, following her last resurrection in her original witch body - by the hands of unsuspecting Davina Claire, who thought she was bringing back her boyfriend, Kol Mikaelson - Esther was forced to participate in her children's plan to kill her sister, Dahlia. After begging with Dahlia to end her misdeeds, Esther allows herself to be killed together with her, by Klaus. She and Dahlia were shown to have found peace, with Esther asking for her older sister forgiveness, finally admitting that she did love her. Dahlia then forgives her younger sister, and the two of them finally make up. Esther was the matriarch of the Mikaelson Family and was a member of an unnamed Norwegian family of powerful witches. Early History |-|The Middle Ages, 10th Century= Throughout The Vampire Diaries Series |-|Season Three= Throughout The Originals Series |-|Season One= |-|Season Two= Personality |-|Witch= |-|Vampire= Esther looks very desperate and confused, now she was not witch, a vampire that was in transition, making her impotent against her sister Dahlia or any other evil, that may want to harm her family. Without her powers, Esther needed to make an important decision, die or become what she hates most. When Esther completed the transition, her son Finn accused her and called her a hypocrite for giving into temptation. Esther seemed to have no remorse for becoming what they both hated and tried to defend herself by stating that she only drank the blood and implored to Finn that though she was still his mother. Finn merely replied with hatred and stabbed her with the blade to channel her power. |-|Ghost= Even as a ghost, Esther was set on eradicating the world of her granddaughter. Esther ordered the witches of New Orleans to kill Hope at all costs. Although this made her children hate her more, she was doing so to save her children from her sister Dahlia, who would kill her children to get the power of the firstborn Hope. After being resurrected by Davina Claire, Esther's personality changed drastically. Esther realized that what she had done to her children was wrong, and even so, leaving Dahlia a millennium ago was too wrong. Esther showed no retaliation to helping her children kill her sister, although knowing that she too would die in the process. Physical Appearance Esther was a tall, slim and beautiful woman in her mid to late 40's, somewhere between 45-49. She has long natural blond hair and brown eyes. She had fine facial features, which testified to her Scandinavian origins. She did not use makeup in 10/11 century, but after returning to the life she began to emphasize her beauty. Long, flowing dresses she turned on aristocratic dress - her taste alluded to taste of her husband and children. Freya and Rebekah greatly resemble her, inheriting her pale skin and blonde hair along with features. Her sons (except Klaus) inherited the color of her eyes. Powers and Abilities |-|Witch= |-|Vampire= For a time, Esther had been turned (indirectly) by Rebekah into a vampire. Esther possessed all the standard powers and abilities of a non-original vampire. Weaknesses |-|Human/Witch= Esther had the typical weaknesses of a human/witch. |-|Vampire= However, while she was possessing Lenore and became a vampire she had the typical weaknesses of an non-original vampire. Relationships Dahlia Esther's relationship with her elder sister is a seemingly complicated one. Dahlia seemed to be disappointed and angered that Esther chose to devote her life to being a wife and mother instead of devoting life to witchcraft. In spite of that, she seemed to care about her sister when Esther begged Dahlia to use her magic to help her get pregnant and agreed to help her. However, Dahlia tricked Esther and took her oldest daughter and even went so far as to threaten taking all of her children if she did not cooperate. Dahlia did not, however, kill Freya after taking her. Instead, the powerful witch groomed Freya and taught her niece to control her vast powers, eventually teaching her a spell that would allow Freya to preserve her life through a hundred years of hibernation and upon awakening only to a year of natural age and repeating the process after that. After learning more, Freya escaped Dahlia after discovering that "her truths were paired with lies" by unknown means and has been running from the older, more powerful witch ever since. Esther correctly fears that her older sister could return and if her payment isn't given, she would destroy the entire Mikaelson Family. Other Relationships *Esther and Finn (Mother and Son/Former Allies/Enemies) *Kol and Esther (Mother and Son/Former Allies/Enemies) *Esther and Elijah (Mother and Son/Former Enemies) *Klaus and Esther (Mother and Son/Former Enemies) *Hope and Esther (Granddaughter and Grandmother/Former Enemies) *Hayley and Esther (Family/Enemies) *Esther and Elena (Enemies) *Mikael and Esther (Husband and Wife/Enemies) *Esther and Freya (Mother and Daughter/Former Enemies) *Bonnie and Esther (Enemies/Former Allies) Appearances Season Three *''Ordinary People'' (Flashback) *''Bringing Out The Dead'' *''Dangerous Liaisons'' *''All My Children'' *''Heart of Darkness'' (Also possesses Rebekah Mikaelson at the end) *''Do Not Go Gentle '' (Also possesses Rebekah Mikaelson at the beginning) Season Six *''I'll Remember'' (Mentioned) The Originals Season One *''Always and Forever'' (Flashback) *''Après Moi, Le Déluge'' (Mentioned) *''From a Cradle to a Grave'' (Possessing Cassie) Season Two *''Rebirth'' (Possessing Cassie) *''Alive and Kicking'' (Possessing Cassie) *''Every Mother's Son'' (Flashback/Possessing Cassie & Lenore) *''Live and Let Die'' (Possessing Lenore) *''Red Door'' (Flashback/Possessing Lenore) *''Wheel Inside the Wheel'' (Flashback/Possessing Lenore) *''Chasing the Devil’s Tail'' (Possessing Lenore) *''The Map of Moments'' (Possessing Lenore) *''Gonna Set Your Flag On Fire'' (Possessing Lenore/Neutralized by Finn Mikaelson) *''Sanctuary'' (Archive Footage) *''They All Asked For You'' (Archive Footage) *''Exquisite Corpse'' (Possessing Lenore) *''City Beneath The Sea'' (Flashback) *''Ashes to Ashes '' (Death) Season Three *''For the Next Millennium'' (Mentioned) *''The Axeman's Letter'' (Mentioned) *''Wild at Heart'' (Archive Footage) *''Heart Shaped Box'' (Mentioned) *''Behind the Black Horizon'' (Archive Footage) *''Where Nothing Stays Buried'' (Mentioned) *''The Bloody Crown'' (Mentioned) Season Four *''I Hear You Knocking'' (Mentioned) *''High Water and a Devil's Daughter'' (Mentioned) *''Queen Death'' (Mentioned) *''The Feast of All Sinners'' (Mentioned) Season Five *''One Wrong Turn On Bourbon'' (Indirectly Mentioned) *''Don't It Just Break Your Heart'' (Mentioned) *''The Kindness of Strangers'' (Indirectly Mentioned) *''Til the Day I Die'' (Mentioned) *''The Tale of Two Wolves'' (Indirectly Mentioned) *''When The Saints Go Marching In'' (Mentioned) Legacies Season One *''This is the Part Where You Run'' (Indirectly Mentioned) }} Name *'Esther' is a female Persian name (استر) which means "star" or a Hebrew form of the Persian goddess Ishtar. In the Old Testament, Esther is the name of the Jewish queen of King Ahasuerus of Persia who saved her people from the wicked plans of Haman.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Esther_(given_name) Trivia just as her sister, Dahlia's, is the Woodland Merinda Dahlia. ** Both symbols were prominently used to pinpoint Hope's location by their respective witches. *Esther has died four times in the series and all her deaths were violent. *Esther created the spells for both the Moonlight and Daylight rings. The Moonlight ring came first as she created it for Klaus' biological father. *Esther initially believed Nature will not permit her to find peace until all vampires are gone. However, in Ashes to Ashes, she eventually did find peace. *She is the first Caucasian female witch to be shown in the TV series. *She is the third oldest Caucasian witch to be in the TV series after Silas and Dahlia. *It's probable that she knew about Qetsiyah, Silas and Amara's existence because she used a variation of Qetsiyah's immortality spell. *She appears to have the closest relationship with Finn, however, she deemed Klaus to be her most special child. *According to her daughter she was the most powerful Witch in history. **In the Season Two Comic Con trailer, Esther corrects her own daughter's statement when she is revived by possessing Cassie by saying: "A thousand years ago, I was one of the greatest witches that has ever lived. Now, I've returned".https://youtu.be/xTYYsXyNqQE?t=149 *Both her second death and second resurrection occurred in a cemetery. *Kol accurately states that Esther was a genius witch, and an overprotective matriarch. **Esther is said to be a master in the skill of possession, a skill she has shown on a number of occasions; possessing Rebekah, Cassie, and, lastly, Lenore. **Esther was also skilled at protective magics, as she created spells to protect her lover from the werewolf curse, her children from sunlight, and even transferred and bound the protected magics within Emily's spelled Gilbert ring to create the indestructible white oak stake. **Esther was so gifted with her spellcraft that it took an entire coven of witches ages to reverse engineer the vampire creation spell in order for Lucien to become the Beast. Davina, working alone, periodically over the course of a year or two was able to reverse engineer and create a sire-line unlinking spell. *In Red Door, Esther is seen drinking tea for almost the entire time, which fits with Kol calling her 'as mad as a hatter'. * Esther is the second parent in the Originals to be turned into a vampire by their own child. In her case, it was her daughter, Rebekah. ** The first was Hayley Marshall by her daughter Hope Mikaelson. ** The nature of which she was turned while in Lenore's body draws parallels with how she initially turned her children. She was tricked into drinking wine laced with blood and stabbed. *All of her children have some sort of disdain to her; except Henrik who is dead. **Elijah, Klaus, Kol, and Rebekah all hate her for trying to kill them. **Finn thinks she's a hypocrite for becoming a vampire. **Freya hates her for sending her away as a child. *Esther is the second grandmother shown on screen, Sheila Bennett being first. *Esther was revealed to have been barren in Wheel Inside the Wheel; this was a problem that was fixed by her older sister, Dahlia. **In the same episode she was also revealed to have come from Norway. *According to her granddaughter Hope, in One Wrong Turn On Bourbon, Esther "practically invented Dark Magic". *Esther contributed to the creation of original vampire species: **'Original Vampires' - by turning her husband and her children into them. **'Original Hybrid' - by turning Klaus. **'Enhanced Original Vampire' - by turning Alaric. }} Gallery References See also Category:Characters Category:Vampire Diaries Characters Category:The Vampire Diaries Season Three Characters Category:The Originals Characters Category:The Originals Season One Characters Category:The Originals Season Two Characters Category:Female Characters Category:Guest Characters Category:Recurring Characters Category:Antagonists Category:Mystic Falls Residents Category:New Orleans Residents Category:New Orleans Coven Category:Mikaelson Family Category:Supernatural Category:Witches Category:Spirits Category:Ghosts Category:Resurrected Characters Category:Deceased